Saxophone
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The saxophone (colloquially referred to as sax) is a conical-bored instrument of the woodwind family.
It is usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece like the clarinet. The saxophone is commonly associated with popular music, big band music, blues, and jazz - but was originally intended as both an orchestral and military band instrument. '
Saxophone in jazz
Jazz saxophonists are musicians who play various types of saxophones (tenor saxophone, alto saxophone, etc.) in jazz, jazz fusion, and other jazz subgenres. The techniques and instrumentation of this type of performance have evolved over the 1900s, influenced by jazz at large and by influential sax players within it. Jazz saxophonists adapted different soloing and playing styles to suit the different periods of jazz history. In the 1930s, during the swing and big band era, one of the well-known sax players was Johnny Hodges (1906– 1970), an alto saxophonist who led the saxophone section in the Duke Ellington Big Band.
In the early 1940s, jazz bebop saxophonists such as Charlie Parker shifted jazz from danceable popular music towards a more challenging "musician's music", with solos that included more chromaticism and dissonance. In the 1950s, hard bop sax players infused their music with rhythm and blues styles and gospel influences. In the 1950s and 1960s, free jazz pioneers such as sax player Ornette Coleman (1930- ) (alto, tenor) and John Coltrane (1926-67) developed unusual new sounds and playing styles. In the 1970s-era jazz-rock fusion scene, Wayne Shorter was one of the key sax players. In the 1980s, sax players such as Kenny G (Kenny Gorelick, 1956- ), (soprano, alto, tenor) and David Sanborn (1945- ), (alto, soprano) played a radio-friendly style of fusion called smooth jazz. In the 1990s and 2000s, Joshua Redman (1969- )(alto, soprano, tenor) returned to a more traditional approach which reached back to the sax greats of the 1950s and 1960s.
See also
